BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : ANGELS : Easley to Wait One More Day

Infielder Damion Easley, on the disabled list because of an inflamed right shoulder, was expected to start playing catch and take batting practice Saturday, but the Angel medical staff told him to wait another day.

“They’re taking the conservative approach I guess,” Easley said. “I’ve had the full range of motion since Thursday and it has felt fine the last couple of days, so I’m wondering as much as you. Ned (Bergert, team trainer) said we would wait until it felt good and then take an extra day, so I guess I was forewarned.”

Easley is eligible to return on Tuesday and said he expects to enter the starting lineup immediately, although he doesn’t know how sharp he will be.

Easley is destined to play second base when Eduardo Perez returns from triple-A Vancouver, but expects to return to third until Perez is promoted.

“No one has told me differently,” he said.

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Manager Marcel Lachemann acknowledges he hasn’t been able to find a diversion to keep the team’s recent struggles from weighing heavily on his mind.

“I go out and run, but I still think about it,” he said. “I watch TV, but it’s running through my mind. I just can’t seem to leave it at the park. I’d like to, but I can’t.”

Asked if he had considered turning over a table of food in the clubhouse, he said: “Not unless I had already eaten.”

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Asked to evaluate his performance so far, Lachemann gave himself a grade of C-minus.

“We’re 8-12 since I got here,” he said before Saturday night’s game, “and that’s not very good. This game is graded by wins and losses. You can’t try and run and hide from that.”

Lachemann was reminded that Angel management said victories and defeats had nothing to do with the firing of Buck Rodgers, and that teaching and nurturing a young team were given as reasons Lachemann was hired.

“Teaching is always a part of major league baseball, but you have to win along the way,” he said. “We have to improve and improving means winning more games than we are right now.”

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Catcher Greg Myers, who suffered a hamstring injury while rehabilitating a knee, said he hopes to begin another rehabilitation assignment with Class-A Lake Elsinore in the next couple of days. “There’s still some soreness in the knee, but I’m learning to tolerate it,” he said. . . . Pitcher Scott Lewis, on the disabled list because of a strained neck, is scheduled to join Lake Elsinore Monday and pitch two innings on Thursday. . . . Pitcher Julio Valera, recovering from elbow surgery on July 8, 1993, will also join Lake Elsinore and start Monday’s game against Bakersfield.